Darjeeling Your Help is Needed to Find These Two First World War Veterans

Darjeeling is hands down the best place to be born in, and we say this with a conviction that finds its roots in our shared experiences of having lived elsewhere. Every time, we begin to doubt the fate and future of our community, we are jolted to reality by our kindest readers, who permit us a glimpse into the incredible presence of our community, that assures a bright and shining future. Politics apart, nowhere else in the world, would you find people so kind, thoughtful and honest. Here is one such story.

A jewellery shop – D.N Jewelers, Shop no 15, Saraf line, Below Nilamber restaurant, in Chowk Bazar Darjeeling, shut down abruptly in 1965 following the accident of its owner Lt Sri Dinanath Singh. The shop had remained unopened till date. Recently, Mukul Oza the great-grandson of Lt. Dinanath Singh finally opened the shop to check what remained.

He says, “My great-grandfather ran that shop from 1940 to 1964, in 1965 he passed away due to the accident. After that, the shop was closed. Recently I reopened that shop again, and I found silver 43 coins… among those coins, I found two medals.”

The medals have names etched in them, Lt. Chandra Bahadur Gurung who must be in east India company between 1914 to 1918, and Lt. Mr Bhagtabahadur Thapa who must have been posted in the north-west frontier in the East India company from 1930-1931.

Medal of Lt. Chandra Bahadur Gurung

Medal of Lt. Mr Bhagtabahadur Thapa

Mukul now is a man with a mission, he wants to handover these medals to the family members of these brave-hearts.

He says, “It’s just a silver coin for me, but for their families, it would be their pride… can you please help me the find the correct person?”

Elsewhere, people would have probably melted the silver and used it, but in Darjeeling, we all know the value of a medal that a soldier must have earned. Mukul exemplifies what it means to be a true Gorkha. We have never survived on doles handed out to us, nor have we thrived by cheating others. This sincerity and honesty is what sets us apart. This is what true “Darjeeling Spirit” is all about.

Can you, our dear readers, please SHARE this so that we are able to help reunite two families with the glorious legacy of their ancestors.

We commend Mukul and hope that his selfless act will inspire thousands of others to remain honest and sincere.

Well done Mukul, and thank you for being such an amazing ambassador of the “Darjeeling Spirit.”